The present invention relates to a bill handling apparatus installed in an automatic teller machine (ATM) mounted in, for example, a financial institution or the like, and a bill storage mounted in the bill handling apparatus.
Conventionally, a bill handling apparatus is installed in an automatic teller machine used in a financial institution or the like. Such bill handling apparatus comprises a bill receipt/payment port, through which a user charges and takes out a bill, a bill discrimination unit, which discriminates a bill being received or paid, a temporary holding box, which temporarily receives a bill as received until an associated transaction is realized, a bill storage, which receives and holds a bill, and a bill conveyance path, through which a bill is conveyed to the respective units or boxes.
The bill storage includes a reject box for receipt of rejected bill, which is discriminated by the bill discrimination unit not to meet a predetermined reference, a recycling box, in which bill for receipt and payment is received every denomination, and a loading box, which serves for replenishing of bill to the recycling box and for recovery of bill from the recycling box.
Recently, as cash handled in an ATM is increased in denomination, there is proposed a bill handling apparatus, in which many bill storages are mounted to the extent possible. In a bill handling apparatus described in JP-A-8-221636, for example, plural bill storages are arranged in a lower portion of the apparatus in alignment in a longitudinal direction of the apparatus, and a bill receipt/payment port, a bill discrimination unit, a temporary holding box, and other mechanism parts are arranged together in an upper portion of the apparatus.
Denominations, which a bill handling apparatus can handle, correspond to the number of the bill storages. That is, as the number of the bill storages is increased, it is possible to handle many denominations. In case of the bill handling apparatus described in JP-A-8-221636, however, the bill handling apparatus is made large-sized in a longitudinal direction corresponding to the number of bill storages. Therefore, there has been demanded for a bill handling apparatus capable of corresponding to an increase in denomination while the apparatus is prevented from being made large-sized.
Meeting the demand described above, a bill storage provided therein with a plurality of receipt portions has been proposed as shown in JP-A-2008-152430. In the bill storage described in JP-A-2008-152430, it becomes possible to handle a plurality of denominations only by one bill storage. Therefore, without the extension of bill storages, it becomes possible to provide a bill handling apparatus capable of corresponding to an increase in denomination.
The bill storage disclosed in JP-A-2008-152430 comprises a bill inlet-outlet, through which a bill is taken out or received from the outside, a sorting gate, which switches connection of a conveyance path in order to distribute bills to destinations of conveyance, and a plurality of receipt portions including a taking-out and accumulating mechanism part (a feed roller, gate roller, etc.), which performs actions, in which bill is taken out and in which bill is accumulated. In the bill storage, an internal conveyance path, through which a bill is conveyed in a vertical direction of the bill storage, and a sorting gate, which distributes bills to destinations of receipt, and the sorting gate and the taking-out and accumulating mechanism part are arranged adjacent to each other in this order from the bill inlet-outlet.
That is, since the mechanism part is concentrated in the vicinity between the bill inlet-outlet and the receipt portions, the storage is increased in dimension in a longitudinal direction. Therefore, there has been a demand for realization of a bill storage provided therein with a plurality of receipt portions while the apparatus is prevented from becoming large in size.